Significant Discovery by AGU and Gazi Scientists

Assoc. Prof. Hakan Usta, faculty member at the Department of Material Science and Nanotechnology Engineering of Abdullah Gül University, and Assoc. Prof. Gökhan Demirel, faculty member at the Department of Chemistry of Gazi University, made a significant discovery by demonstrating for the first time that nanostructured, superhydrophobic and organic semiconductor films can be used in SERS.

The research of Demirel, Usta and coworkers entitled "Nanostructured Organic Semiconductor Films For Molecular Detection With Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy" is the result of a two-year intensive R&D work and has been published in Nature Materials, the most prestigious materials science journal with the highest impact factor.

They succeeded in forming nanostructured films in ivy-like morphology using organic semiconductor molecules with a unique manufacturing approach. Although metallic and inorganic structures have been in use until now, this research shows for the first time that an organic-based structure can enhance SERS applications.

In his review written for Natural Materials, Prof. John R. Lombardi from the Department of Chemistry at The City University of New York (CUNY) stated that “The results ... have the potential to open up a whole new area of research and [this discovery] can vastly expand the applicability of SERS to the field of molecular sensors.”

Interviewed by C&EN News, a leading science-technology magazine published in the USA, Assoc. Prof. Demirel and Assoc. Prof. Usta said that they were proud of their work and that thanks to the results obtained, they became pioneers of work to come in the field of molecular sensors by manufacturing inexpensive, easy and efficient platforms.

You may read the article via:

https://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4957.html

The interview of Assoc. Prof. Demirel and Usta in C&EN News:

http://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/08/Organic-semiconductor-film-enhances-Raman-signals.html

The review of Prof. John R. Lombardi on the research in Nature Materials:

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4958.html